Sunderland and Dick Advocaat face tricky 2015/16 season

It's early days, I know, but one thing was made obvious from Sunderland's trip to the King Power stadium: it's going to be a tough season for the Black Cats and their loyal fans after a humiliating 4-2 loss to Leicester City.

Dick Advocaat's men were blown away by Claudio Ranieri's side during a 15 minute first half spell, conceding three goals with Riyad Mahrez running riot, scoring twice.

The manner in which Sunderland capitulated was strangely familiar, with defensive errors featuring heavily - Match of the Day highlighted five errors from Sunderland leading up to the fourth goal.

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Younes Kaboul made his debut at the heart of defence and proved conclusively why Tottenham were so eager to let the defender depart the club, producing a totally inept performance.

Other new signing Jermain Lens showed glimpses of his quality, but from a Sunderland perspective it was a bleak way to get the season up and running.

Relegation candidates

Many pundits have singled out Sunderland as outside favourites to succumb to the drop this year after only narrowly avoiding relegation last season.

Sunderland are capable of producing the odd magnificent display; a 0-0 draw at the Emirates last season was a masterclass in defensive discipline, but performances of this calibre are extremely rare on Wearside.

The club have been more prone to humiliating defeats in recent years: an 8-0 thrashing at the hands of Southampton last season possibly the worst of the lot.

The club has become disjointed with a high managerial turnover and an obvious lack of consistency throughout the club and players not performing to a required standard - this was made obvious against Leicester.

Newly promoted clubs Watford, Norwich and Bournemouth all failed to win during the opening day, but the style of play and quality shown by these clubs on the opening day proved that Sunderland will likely face a tricky task to remain in the division.

There is still time left in the transfer window to help change Sunderland's fortunes or the team may finally click at some point but at the moment things look pretty grim for the Black Cats.

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